


Not perfect soldiers, but good people

by Powerranger



Category: RWBY
Genre: CFVY, F/F, F/M, I'm Bad At Tagging, Multi, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, RWBY - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-05-22
Packaged: 2020-03-08 07:50:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18890320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Powerranger/pseuds/Powerranger
Summary: Every so often, Ozpin and Ironwood need to do somethings under the radar, something clandestine, and so they put together teams to make it happen. Black Ops, the best of the best. Ozpin's first such team was STRQ. Currently, Ozpin is using Team CFVY as his elite strike force, and Ironwood is using a team called DMGE. When the two teams meet, an odd friendship and bond forms between all of them, as they explore what it means to be in their line of work





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is one of my first attempts at adding original characters into a work. Please let me know what you think, and as always, feedback and constructive criticism is welcomed.

Chapter 1

Ozpin tapped his cane as he walked down the hallways of Beacon, and then he looked around him, sipping his coffee. He exchanged nods of greeting and the typical pleasantries with the other teachers in the school, and then he made his way into the elevator. Glynda was waiting for him, and the two of them silently stepped inside. Once they were in, Ozpin took a card from inside his cane. He pressed it to the line of buttons on the elevator and he waited. A few moments later, a new button appeared, with no words on it, just the logo for a cup of coffee. He pressed the button and then the elevator began to descend. Eventually, the doors opened and he stepped off with Glynda into a secret part of the school, with the two of them, STRQ, and CFVY being the only ones to know about it. 

Ozpin walked to the center of the room, to the table. He sat down, and then Glynda did the same. A few moments later, a hologram appeared on the desk, a hologram of Ironwood. " Ozpin. It's good to see you. And you as well Glynda," Ironwood began. He then walked around in the hologram, before stopping and staring out into the room. " Were you followed? Is the signal secured?"

" It always is James," Ozpin cuts him off before he could say anything else. He rests his chins in his hands, and then he looks at the general. " Why don't you tell me what it is you want? What it is you called me for? You used a burner, something we specifically told you not to do unless there was an emergency."

" I emailed you the file earlier today," Ironwood states, and then Ozpin grabs his tablet and begins to press some of the buttons, bringing up said email. All of it is in code, but Ozpin reads through it, clearly understanding it all. " Willow Schnee has been captured, and is being ransomed by the White Fang. Atlas is working very hard to keep this under the radar. The only ones who know are myself, Winter Schnee, Jacques and now you."

" This hardly seems like the type of mission you need CFVY for. Surely some Atlas specialists can manage. Winter Schnee perhaps?" Ozpin asked, mostly because he didn't want to send CFVY on this, he didn't want them to have to be sent on another mission, so close to the last one. All of the experts, and all of his last team had told him the effects of being sent on too many missions back to back, what it did to their sense of reality. 

" Public perception in Atlas right now is largely against the military. The people are doubting the need for our efforts doubling as we prepare to fight a war they know nothing about," Ironwood states. " If we send the military, someone is going to find out about, and that's the last thing we can afford right now. If it leaks that Willow Schnee was captured from her own hone, then the reputation of the military is shot. This has to be clandestine, and can't be done with any military involvement."

Ozpin sighs, and then sips from his coffee. He knows there isn't another choice, and he stands up. He sets a case on the table, and then opens it, and presses the button inside, the signal for CFVY to mobilize. " You owe me one James," he states. Their relationship being professional and friendly on the surface, to all of Remnant to see was far from the truth. They worked with each other out of obligation, trading favors such as this to each other. 

" CFVY won't be doing this alone. I've put together my own team, DMGE who serve a purpose similar to CFVY. They've already made it to Beacon. They're waiting by the docks right now for your team. Tell them to meet down there. The leader of DMGE has all of the information neccessary for this." Ironwood then ends the hologram transmission, leaving Ozpin to sit in his chair, waiting for his team to make their way to him. 

A few moments pass, and then Coco Adel struts into the room, followed by Velvet, clinging to her arm, and then Fox walks in and leans on the wall, as Yatsuhashi remains in the doorway of the room. " What do you need Oz," Coco asked, long past asking for formalities. 

" You'll be working to retrieve Willow Schnee from the White Fang," Ozpin says, handing Coco a folder, which the girl doesn't even begin to read. " Head down to the docks. There, you'll meet the people you'll be working with, the people of the DMGE program."

" Got it." Coco then turns, quickly so as not to face Ozpin, but not so quickly as to brush Velvet off her arm. " It's going to be okay hun-bun." Coco promises, kissing the girl's bunny ears, making them twitch happily and softly. The four of them walk back into the elevator and then presses the button for the first for. " You're not going to have to kill anyone."

Velvet smiles softly, and then leans on her friend, her leader. " If I don't, then all of you are going to have to kill more people for the mission to work," Velvet murmurs softly, and then Fox holds her hand lightly, stroking the back of it. 

" We can handle it. It doesn't matter, we're gonna keep that from your conscious," he promises. Fox then kisses the side of her cheek, and then walks out of the elevator when they make it to the top floor, and back to their dorms. 

All of them have been on enough of these missions that within a few seconds, all of them are packed and ready to go. After that, they make their way down to the docks. " You've been quiet," Fox observes, looking up at Yatsuhashi. 

" I am unhappy with being at Ozpin's beck and call. But more and more each day, I find myself without options otherwise," Yatsuhashi states simply, and then he looks at the other three and gives them a small smile. " Come. Let us go meet our new playmates." He says, without a hint of irony, and then he walks down, this time in the front of the team to the boat they see drifting in the harbor, with four others waiting for them, DMGE.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The four people stand by the edge of the boat, carefully obscured in the darkness. When CFVY makes it into their visual range, the first one steps out of the shadows. Coco tilts her head curiously, at the very least impressed with his fashion sense. His camo pants going well with the combat vest he wears, that showing off his muscles rather well Coco thinks. On his shoulder is a tattoo of small angel wings. His green eyes have a hardness to them, and give off an energy like he's seen everything, and his black hair is slicked back. When he speaks, he speaks slowly and methodically, as if having memorized the words, but not being too sure about what he's saying exactly. " My name is Dylan. Dylan Brown. I'm the leader of this team. Project DMGE. Though if I'm too understand, Beacon assigns names as well as the acronym. Meaning our team is called Team ' Damage.'"

Coco sets down her purse, which expands into her minigun, and then folds her arm. " I'm Coco. Coco Adel. The leader of Team CFVY. Or ' Coffee.' Let's cut the shit and the shadowy act shall we? Step out of the shadows, and then let's have some introductions. I'm not going to put my life, or the life of my team into the hands of strangers." When none of them seem willing to step out of the shadows, Coco chuckles softly. " Fine. Don't come out. But then you get to explain to Ironwood why CFVY wasn't there for the mission."

Slowly, the second of them steps out of the shadows. Her red hair is in a ponytail, and her brown eyes flicker with indifference, but Coco is good enough at reading people. This new girl's stance is combative, waiting for half an excuse to fly off the rails and fight something. Her build is slender and muscular Coco thinks, though she can't tell underneath the armor the girl is wearing. On her back is a sword, at least as tall, if not taller than her. " Maria Waller. I was the second member of the DMGE program. I'd say I look forward to working with you, but that would be a lie. It was this or prison, and this seemed more pleasant."

" It was this or prison for all of us," the third voice states, and then out of the shadows comes a slender man, much skinnier than the other two. He seems almost malnourished, and covered in scars, which if Coco had to guess came from scalpels and other incisions, some needle marks maybe? His blue eyes are glassy, like he isn't all there, and his blonde hair is done messily, like he doesn't care about appearances. " But it is genuinely a pleasure to meet all of you. Eeel's my name, but the ladies can call me darling. ~" He stretches out his arm somehow and then goes to grab Velvet's butt, causing her to flinch, and before he can, Fox grabs his hand and begins to crush it, though to Coco's surprise, there's no cracking sound, almost as if there were no bones in him at all, Coco knows if there were Fox would have shattered them. 

" D-don't m-mind him," comes a stutter, and then the last member of DMGE steps out, a small girl, who Coco would confuse for a middle school student if she weren't covered in scars, some of which look self inflicted and others clearly aren't. The girl looks down shyly, her blue hair falling in her face, obscuring her eyes. " M-My name is G-Gina. I h-hope our mission goes well." She says shyly, in a voice which sounds like it's about to crack. 

" Great. Now that that's done," Fox says, all eyes being drawn to him as he lets go of Eeel's hand. " What can you all do? If Ozpin and Ironwood thought they needed two teams for this, then this can't be as simple as saving Willow. Or if it is, it isn't going to be that easy. I'm not gonna die, or let anyone on my team die because we got stuck with a bunch of weaklings." Gina flinches from his words and his accusatory tone, and then Maria growls and steps forward. 

The girl lifts the sword from her back with one hand and then slams it into the ground, creating a crater. The shockwave of it travels for a little bit, but Fox doesn't even flinch. Maria, seemingly more annoyed by this holds out her hand, and then a series of small explosions all appear. " I'm going to fry you!!" She says, a look of barely restrained violence in her eyes. 

" Try it," Fox invites, flames crackling around him as he begins to use his own Semblance. The rest of his team, except Velvet step next to him also, ready to protect their teammate, and the rest of DMGE go around Maria, with only Gina staying out of the way. 

Dylan sighs as he looks at Maria. He then closes his eyes, and begins to grow in size. His shirt rips, though his pants tear, they manage to hold together. His skin becomes black and red, similar to a Grimm, and his arms grow in muscle and in bulk. By the time he transforms, he towers over the rest of the, save for Yatsu. He then roars, even that being enough to kick up the ground and cause winds to speed up. It's a show of force, but none of CF_Y flinches at it. 

Maria continues to make a series of explosions in her hand, and then Eeel chuckles. He holds out his hand, and all of his fingers stretch out into the air. His body begins to morph, and Coco confirms her theory, he has no bones, and she watches as his arm condenses into a sledge hammer, and when he slams it down into the ground, it kicks up a large cloud of dust. 

Coco picks up her purse, and then the minigun expands from it. Fox sets gauntlets around his arm in the shape of grenades, and then aims them at the other team. Yatsu takes his sword and slams it into the ground. Before either of the teams can begin to fight with each other, two small voices cut them off. " P-Please don't!" Both Velvet and Gina say, stepping in the way of their teammates. Both teams look at their shyest member, and then set away their weapons and de-activate their Semblances slowly, neither of them seeming all too happy with the outcome. 

Coco then walks up to Dylan as the man cancels his transformation, returning to normal. Coco grabs his shoulders, and then takes off her sunglasses so she can look him in the eyes. " If your team ever threatens mine again, then there will be hell to pay. If your team at any point begins to slow down mine, then there will be hell to pay. And if your team can't handle it, then I will leave them behind in a heartbeat to preserve mine."

Dylan grabs her hand and pries it off him, and then he looks at her with an unflinching look in his eyes. " Glad we're all on the same page," he states, and then their bullhead lands. The doors open, and the both teams walk on, going to separate corners of it. 

" That went well," Fox quips, and then Coco snickers slightly, the four of them all laying down with each other, clinging to each other throughout the night.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

CFVY sits on one side of the bullhead. Coco glances out the window, standing up with her arms folded. Fox cleans off his gauntlets, sort of absent-minded, more to give his hands something to do. Yatsuhashi sits in front of the team with a determined look on his face, and Coco almost frowns when she sees this. She knows what he's doing, making himself into a human shield for the team. It's come in handy before, and he can take an attack better than the rest of them could, but Coco has a moment when she realizes how many times she's let one of her best friends be a human shield without even thinking too much about it. Velvet has her hands to head in prayer, and none of them say anything to her. They all know what she's praying for, since she makes the same one each time. It's a prayer that not everyone has to die, that not a lot of people get hurt, and that they're doing the right thing this time. 

Every so often, Coco takes a glance over to the other team in the bullhead. She takes careful looks at each and every one of them, looking for tells, any show of weakness, anything she can use to get a read on them. It's fucked up, and she knows that. Even without her sunglasses, which look cute, but also have sensors for someone's level of aura, previous injuries and everything else a huntress would like to know, Coco can't look at someone without thinking of them as a target, or in terms of someone she might need to take down one day. Coco just uses the sunglasses as a crutch, her way to tell herself that it's only the technology that lets her see everyone as an enemy, and it isn't just who she's become. 

Coco shakes the thought from her mind, and continues to make her observations of the other team. She presses a button on the side of her sunglasses, and then it creates a new note for her which she can access later on her scroll. She titles it ' DMGE' and then makes four divisions for each member of that team. Coco keeps watching them, at this point, both to give herself something to do since she could never get to sleep that well anymore, and also because she might need to know. DMGE weren't the first team they worked with that they had to take down one day because they knew too much. The mark of one of their last missions, one of the only which hadn't been a success had been to track down someone who used to work with them. Coco isn't going to let that happen again, if this team tries to double cross her, then she's going to take them all down. 

Eeel is the one who's easy for her to figure out. He's a pervert, and he doesn't try to hide it. He didn't before when his first move was to smack Velvet's ass, and he doesn't know as he reads a Playboy magazine. Her sunglasses show her his insides, which shows that he has no bones, and yet his body somehow holds together. His internal organs are in places Coco never would have even thought how to guess, and then she sees also some serum making it's way through his blood stream. Coco makes an annotation in his section to try and get a blood sample to figure out what it is, what abilities it gives him, and how she would be able to take him out if he tried to do something to Velvet, or to her, or if he was just being a pain in the ass. Though Coco gets the feeling he's not a threat, at least not to them. She can't say why, but she's learn to go with her gut most of the time. 

Maria on the other hand was much harder for Coco to figure out. Earlier, she had been so quick to fight, and so willing to do so. It had been a simple statement from Fox which had sent her into her battle stance. And she had radiated barely contained violence. If Eeel was to be believed earlier, it was being in this program or prison for all of them, which likely meant that Maria had several charges of assault against her. Curiously, Coco tries to use her sunglasses to filter for Maria in a database, but she isn't surprised when she can't find any matches. Atlas likely wiped all of their files when they joined this program. The ' Clean Slate' protocol that Atlas used was well known, even if there were a lot of myths about it. It doesn't matter, Coco could probably say more about her than the files could. Coco almost smiles when she sees Maria protectively cradling Gina, not unlike how all of them hold Velvet when it's late at night and she can't manage to get to sleep. 

Coco turns her head to Gina, but as she does, she ends up looking up to see Dylan standing in front of her with his arms folded. " Can I help you with something Miss Adel? Otherwise, I'd suggest getting some sleep. You don't know when you're going to be able to with this mission." Dylan speaks like a soldier giving an order. His being commands respect, which Coco appreciates, he's a leader. But right now, he's in the way of her objective. 

" We can cut the shit Mr. Brown." Coco simply states, keeping her voice carefully neutral. " I think we both know that you also have the measure of my team so to speak. If I had to guess, you've been putting together your own files about us. You look like you've been doing this for a long time."

" Longer than you. Or anyone in the program. You'd be surprised how high the turnover rate is," Dylan replies casually. 

" I have some idea," Coco replies. " I've been doing this for sometime myself."

" Maybe at Beacon."

" Atlas doesn't seem to be all that if they needed our help on this." Coco retorts, her head cocked and her arms folded. 

" Beacon is softer than Atlas. I know this doesn't seem like it is. But it is. Everyone who applies to Beacon knows about CFVY, and everyone knew about STRQ as well. You get chances to be something else, other than this. You get to be heroes to the world, and you get to have your names and statues. Ozpin sweeps it under a rug what it is you guys really are, and maybe when this is all over, that means you get to go home. You know what happens to us when Ironwood doesn't need DMGE?" Dylan asks. 

Coco goes silent, agreeing with the point. " What'd you want?" She wonders, since it was him who came over here to her. It couldn't have been just to strike up a conversation with her. In their line of work, it was never that simple, even when they wanted it to be. 

" Just to let you know something." Dylan said. " I'm not gonna let anything happen to Velvet. I'm going to be looking out for her. All of you really. But especially her. She doesn't belong on the battlefield."

" No, she doesn't. At least not this one," Coco finds herself agreeing. " And neither does Gina."

" No." Dylan agreed, and then he turned to leave. " I mean it Adel. Get some sleep." He then walks off, giving her a small wave. Coco watches as he goes and then lies down with the rest of his team, all of them protectively around Gina in some form or fashion. 

Coco almost smiles at the sight again and then walks back to her team. Velvet lays against Yatsuhashi's chest, as Fox lays over Velvet. Coco lays to the right of Velvet, and stays close. She almost chuckles when she thinks that maybe the teams aren't that different, and then she realizes that all Dylan had done was stop her from getting the full measures of his team. He's good, and she is too. They're almost too good at doing this, she thinks.


End file.
